Bitcoin Steadies Near $78,000 as FBI Blames North Korea for Record Binance Hack

The FBI on Saturday accused North Korea of stealing more than $6 billion in virtual assets from the cryptocurrency exchange Binance on or about October 29, 2026, in what is thought to be the biggest-ever crypto heist. The agency said a North Korea-affiliated group called TraderTraitor was behind the attack — the same group blamed for a $1.5 billion theft from the Bybit platform in February last year, and believed to be part of the Lazarus Group. Investigators said TraderTraitor actors had been converting stolen assets into Ethereum, and urged firms to block linked addresses.

Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume, moved quickly to contain the fallout. The company said on Saturday it had set aside more than $6.34 billion in company funds to cover the losses, and had already used company money to buy tokens to replenish 90 percent of what was stolen. The remaining 10 percent, it said, consists of less liquid tokens that may take longer to source in the required amounts. User withdrawals, suspended after the attack, were on track to resume on Sunday — a deadline traders are watching closely, since a smooth reopening would remove one of the week’s biggest overhangs.

The market’s reaction so far has been calmer than the scale of the theft might suggest. Bitcoin plunged nearly 5 percent when news of the hack first broke, while Ethereum dropped nearly 6 percent and Binance’s own BNB token tumbled nearly 10 percent. But the bleeding stopped fast. Bitcoin closed October 31 at $77,435, up 0.4 percent on the day after trading in a narrow $76,974–$77,608 range, and by 1 a.m. Eastern Time on November 1 it was back at $77,821, up 0.81 percent over 24 hours. Ether rose 1.20 percent to $2,267 in the same snapshot, with XRP, BNB and Dogecoin also higher and only Solana slightly lower.

Under the surface, the data tells a story of a market that has absorbed a shock rather than shrugged it off. The Crypto Fear & Greed Index read 34, in “Fear” territory, though up from 30 a day earlier, and only 14 of the 50 largest assets rose on October 31 against 30 that fell. Liquidations across Binance, Bybit and OKX totalled just $33.1 million over 24 hours — small by crypto standards, and tilted toward shorts — suggesting forced selling has largely run its course. Meanwhile, on-chain trackers reported roughly $3 billion of the stolen funds frozen, which limits how much of the haul can actually be laundered. The week as a whole still hurt: Bitcoin ended it down about 4.3 percent and Ethereum about 5.6 percent, a reminder that the hack capped an already weak stretch rather than causing it alone.

What to watch next is a crowded week. Binance’s planned reopening on Sunday is the first test; then come the US midterm elections on November 3 and the October jobs report on November 6, either of which can shift risk appetite across all markets. Technically, analysts flag $75,718 — Bitcoin’s weekly average — as the pivot: a weekly close below it would expose $72,956, while holding above it keeps the recovery story alive. The bigger question is structural: a $6 billion breach at the world’s largest exchange will sharpen demands for custody reform and security standards. For readers learning how shocks move markets, our forex tools page has position-size calculators for volatile conditions, and the free forex course covers risk basics that apply to crypto too. (Not financial advice.)